Getting Ready for Gran Fondo Leavenworth 2018

Two weeks to Gran Fondo Leavenworth! I'm looking forward being out on the gravel, being focused and having fun.  This will be my third GFL outing (previous reports: GFL 2016 and GFL 2017).

Last year I ran over a rock (ha), flattened my back rim, and punctured just outside of Entait on highway 97.  Then, after the Swakane Canyon climb on the way down, I lost air in my front wheel and fell - I'm hoping for better luck this time around!!

I built a new front wheel for the Supercourse - the rim was getting a bit too thin; moreover, the bearings on the 25-year old hub were wearing out. I can no longer find a good balance between tight enough and not too tight - the front hub was just getting a bit too loose.

I also built a new back wheel because in the winter, during cold-weather riding, the pawls in the back hub stopped releasing from time to time, which is no fun at all. I think the problem was related to the cold. I haven't had problems with it recently; still, I thought it best to build a new one. And, well, building wheels is fun.

These are #9 and #10, since I started this project three years ago, and they came together beautifully. I can't say enough about Roger Musson excellent book on wheel building - some people are just extraordinary teachers and craftsmen. 

I've installed Compass Bon Jon Pass 35 mm tires on DT Swiss R460 rims. I'm running these tires in tubeless mode.  Yes! That combination of tire and rim works beautifully in tubeless mode.

This set-up, with about 40 psi in the back and 37 psi in the front, worked pretty well at Gran Fondo Winthrop in 2017. I might use a bit more air pressure for GFL - 40 psi feels a bit soft and squirely on the road. I've not been stopping during these rides to change air pressure but perhaps I should.

I've also given the Supercourse a drive train update: new chain-rings (34T and 48T), 7-speed cassette (12-32T), chain, and back derailleur. Hopefully things will be fairly smooth and reliable.

I've noticed that the new back derailleur, a Shimano RD-M310 Altus GS 7/8-speed Rear Der Black,Long Cage ($15.00), has a new personality, which requires slightly different shifting technique.  And, alas, on big bumps it seems to shift up by itself - I'll need to explore that further.  But, the shifter works for 34 x 14T, which gives me a new gear.  That's nice - another area for exploring. 

Except for getting the flu (week 12), which kept me off the bike for 10 days, and took another 2 weeks of recovery time (a nasty cough wouldn't go away), my training has been quite good. Good consistency, with more or less 2 hard weeks followed by a recovery week. I've ridden about 210 hours this year.

I've been eating nutrient rich food (ha) and trying to say away from sugar, not always successfully. Eating "properly" certainly helps with recovery and slowly but surely my weight has dropped over the last 20 weeks, much like in previous years.

I've been working on very hard threshold workouts. Since January, I've been doing a weekly workout on my rollers, working up to being able to do 4 x (20 min HARD + 4 min EASY). My threshold is about 161 - so, I get into the range of 158 - 162 and hold that heart rate for 20 min. Then, I get a 4 min. recovery.  Then, repeat.

Doing two such intervals was fairly doable last year. Working up to being able to do four has been quite the challenge, but is now quite doable. That's not to say they are easy. Nope.  Far from it.  The first 5 minutes and the last 5 minutes are always hard, often very hard, no matter if its the first, second, third, or forth effort - relax a bit and stop focussing and my heart rate drops fast.

Interval #4 puts me in a kind of dark place - perhaps, its a bit too much. I basically fear it and when I start out I'm uncertain if I will finish. I try to focus on smooth peddling and play psychological games - hold the effort for 5 minutes, okay that's done, only ten minutes to go, so stay smooth, okay just eight minutes to go - got this, etc. A lot of it just seems to be psychological - embrace the discomfort and stay with the smooth peddling and look at the clock every 20 seconds (ha). The next developmental step will be to work toward 3 x (30 min HARD + 4 min. EASY). That will have to wait until after GFL.

Over the weeks, the efforts have become more controlled, with smoother and faster peddling and/or with bigger gears. I've read somewhere that the key to such workouts might be consistency - developing the physiology to handle these workouts takes takes time and consistent work. That said, my goal was to incorporate a mix of these kinds of workouts with V02 Max workouts but I haven't found a good pattern for doing that and, so I haven't done any training in Zone #5 this year (unlike last year where I did a regular V02 Max workout each week but not a threshold workout.)

Hopefully, these highly controlled theshold workouts, even without V02 Max efforts, paired with long easy rides in Zone 1 and Zone 2, and a lot of consistency over the last five months, will give me a good aerobic engine.

Over the last two weeks, with the goal of consolidating my form, I've done three very difficult sessions, where I've spent substantial time "sweet-spotting" (high zone 3 / low zone 4).  Staying at a heart rate of 147-153 for almost two straight hours, for example, was very, very difficult.  Until this past couple of weeks, I am almost never in this heart rate range.

Hopefully, all of this work will give me the physiological capacity to do well on the climbs, recover well on the downhills, and manage the distance at GFL. We'll see soon enough.

For the next two weeks, I'll taper, do a couple of short, hard sessions and some easy riding, aiming for about 8-10 hours next week and 4-5 hours during the week of GFL.

Looking forward to riding with focus and care!

The plan:

1. Ride the first 10 miles such that I don't take any wind. Hopefully, it will be a fairly relaxed start like the last two years. 
2. Ride the gravel climb steady, not too fast, at my own pace.
3. Once under the hydro lines, ride hard to the top and keep riding hard over the flat part. Then, eat and drink.
4. Ride conservatively downhill - watch out for cars, etc. At the bottom, eat and drink. 
5. Hopefully, join up with a group in the valley and work together, saving as much as possible. 
6. Once in Swakane Canyon, focus on efficient peddling, no matter the surface, the bumps, the little hills and flats, the loose rocks, the rocks that don't move, the ruts, the mud. Maintaining momentum on this climb is really hard. Shift the gears and peddle well to keep the momentum going. Ride hard up and over the flat part. 
7. Take the downhill conservatively; manage the risks and the rough terrain.
8. Ride hard to the finish, being very careful at the two left turns, which hold a good deal of risk when riding cross-eyed.

It is good to know that exercise can keep aging muscles and immune systems 'young'!

Update on Training

About 9 weeks to go to Gran Fondo Leavenworth by Vicious Cycle.

Gran Fondo Leavenworth - 87 miles (45 gravel) and  9,300 ft of climbing 

Here's a six minute video of the 2015 version of "wonderful hell" by Davo Queen, another excellent video by Impret, and a very long video of the first climb by Michael Pruitt.

Training - Go'n good. Each week, the core of my training has been a V02 Max workout on rollers and a long, generally hard ride. My other riding sessions have been 25 mile commutes (there and back) or other rides at relatively low intensity, sometimes with some hard efforts. In addition, one or two times a week I've been riding  for 50 min. in the morning, without eating, with a heart rate around 120 ppm. I gather that such workouts are particularly good a training the body to burn fat rather than glycogen.

My basic goal has been to make the V02 Max workout really hard - well, I suppose, that's the definition of V02 Max workouts. These workouts remind me of the old days, 35 years ago, when I would do  5 x 1 miles interval sessions, running 78-80 sec. laps. I still remember the sensations when going around the last two bends, trying to stay controlled and smooth. 

I make the long ride hard (zone 4 and 3) and I try to make all the other rides easy (zone 2 and 3). I have a hard time being disciplined and riding easy when I'm supposed to be riding easy, so that's one thing that I've been working on.

Time on the bike. Time in hours on the bike (weeks with a 3+ and 5+ hour ride in green and red).  I generally take one or two days off/week.  I'm pretty sure that two off days is MUCH better for me.

                                              Total
Week  1-4 :   3.25 - 12.00 -  6.00 -  9.50 =  30.75 

      5-8 :  11.00 -  8.75 -  5.00 -  7.50 =  31.25  

      9-12:   7.50 -  7.75 -  8.50 - 13.75 =  37.25 

     13-16:  10.50 - 14.75 - 14.00 -  9.75 =  49.00

Interval workouts. For VO2 Max workouts, I've worked my way from 3-5 x (3 min. hard + 2 min easy) to 3-6 x (5 min. hard + 5 min. easy), to  3-5 x (8 min. hard + 4 min. easy).  I think my maximum heart rate is about 167, that is, 220-53 (my age) = 167. Over the last 16  weeks, while I've hit 167 on several occasions I've not seen it go beyond 167. So, I think the rule of thumb 220-age is a good approximation in my case.

On the 8 min. interval, it takes about 1- 2 min to get my heart rate to 150 bpm and over the next 6-7 min it rises slowly but surely to 162-167.  I've been doing a 30 min. warmup, with 2-3 hard 30 second efforts after I've done 20 min., and a 10-20 min. warm down.  I tend to ride at about 105 rpm, sometimes a little higher, sometimes a little lower and most recently I've been riding in 52x14 (16 weeks ago a 52x18 was plenty hard).

I assume that 105 rpm or so will transfer okay to a climbing cadence of 65-80 rpm or so on the long threshold-type climbs but I do wonder about that because the butt and hip muscles become particularly important when climbing. Perhaps, I should experiment with a slower cadence and a bigger gear but that does't seem like a good idea for the knees.  Maybe better to do some climbing intervals on Norway Hill or the killer Tolt Pipeline Trail.  Not sure. 

Eight minutes is a long time - hell 5 min. is long time - but I figure a long interval has its benefits for the Gran Fondos, which, putting aside fast downhill gravel bike-handling skills, largely test aerobic capacity.

Each of the intervals is challenging but in different ways.  The first one is really hard because I'm somehow not ready for it. The second one is easier, maybe my favorite, but then I have three or four more to do. The third one is often the best, but sometimes, I feel that I'm struggling. The fourth one is almost always a struggle, but satisfying and then, by some miracle I'm ready for one more. And, on the fifth one, I'm barely holding on, but sometimes I seem ready for one more. Crazy, crazy.

I enjoy these. I'm trying to develop the physical and mental capacity to hit a harder effort sooner, perhaps 155 bpm within 30-60 seconds, and hold on to it, and then really work that last 60-90 sec.  It's a challenge.

There's a certain self-centeredness and even a kind of narcissism when I focus on the sensations and mental challenges related to this training. The idea that I actually look forward to almost 2 hours on the rollers in a highly controlled setting - alone, in the garage, listening to NPR - is kind of scary.  I can easily recall times years ago, and more recently, when doing a mere 20 min. on rollers at a steady 90 rpm was physically and mentally hard.  

Weight. My weight has gone down, from about 160 pounds to about 150 pounds. I would like to get it down to 148 or a little less.  I don't think going too much lower will be all that healthy for me.  The downside to losing weight is that now I have every reason to get a lighter frame for the Gran Fondos, since I don't think I can improve too much more by losing weight. Ha.

Still, I have some more work to do on the weight. I take my weight, most days that I ride, after I get home. Here's the sequence of measurements, not showing missing measurements.

158.4 - 161.2 - 158.2 - 160.4 - 158.6 - 158.6 

161.7 - 158.6 - 162.9 - 159.0 - 161.7 - 159.8

160.0 - 160.0 - 159.5 - 162.4 - 160.3 - 159.3  

157.7 - 158.3 - 156.9 - 159.6 - 157.9 - 158.2

158.5 - 156.9 - 154.7 - 157.4 - 157.7 - 155.7 

155.5 - 156.0 - 154.0 - 154.7 - 154.8 - 155.4

152.8 - 156.4 - 157.2 - 152.3 - 152.9 - 155.3

150.7 - 153.8 - 155.5 - 153.1 - 152.2 - 152.2

152.9 - 155.5 - 153.2 - 153.3 - 151.2 - 151.8

150.4 - 148.6

So, almost a check on goal #6 (some structured training) and almost a check on goal #9 (getting weight down to 150 or so).

What's next? I hope to continue with the VO2 Max workout and explore its sensations and potentials and stay at 4 - 6 x (8 min. hard + 4 min. easy) for the next 8 weeks, and try to get my heart rate above 155 in the first 30 -60 sec. and hold and let it raise slowly until the end. I'll keep doing the long ride and move towards 6 hours or a bit longer and keep the easy base riding. Ideally, I'd like to get a little more variation in the "hard" and "easy" weeks to better absorb the training load but that's hard with my schedule and weather and so on.

At present, the V02 Max workout and the long ride are extremely testing and I'm not sure that I can add more intensity per week.  I've tried a couple of times but then I feel like crap (and my knee and back started to tweak out). Perhaps, I should stay within Zone 2 or low Zone 3 on the long ride and then I would have the capacity to absorb an additional threshold workout each week, say two 20-minute  threshold efforts with easy before and have riding. Or, perhaps I will adapt to be able to more easily recover from the V02 Max work now that I've got to a level that seems good. Not sure what's best, but my intuition is that the V02 Max workout is gold and surely the long, hard ride builds strength and aerobic capacity.

I'll plan on a tapering phase in the two weeks preceding the Gran Fondo. That will be an interesting process.

What's important? Touch wood - no accidents, and my body seems to be absorbing the training load and rhythm fairly well.

I am also grateful to be alive; there's no doubt that we are vulnerable. I know only too well that in a split second things can go bad, from all is well to BANG on the ground.  On 61st Ave. NE in Kenmore, on my way home, I frequently pass a ghost bike, where a young man, age 18, from my neighborhood, was killed, and near the Kenmore cement plant I frequently pass a ghost bike (unfortunately, no longer there) on the Burke Gilman Trail where an old man, age 70, was killed, and in the U-District I frequently pass a ghost bike on University Way and NE Campus Parkway, and occasionally I pass the ghost bike in Ravenna.

Ghost bikes are sad.  They always reorient me to thoughts of my family and how lucky I am.  They remind me that riding is a gift, not to be taken for granted.

Nine weeks to go.